[[66]] Although in Antigua the tide does not ebb and flow more than from six to twelve inches in ordinary instances.
[[67]] “Pic’nee” is the negro term for children.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Description of the town of St. John’s, the capital of Antigua—Situation—Arrangement of the streets—Hucksters—Houses—Springs—Small shops—Stores of the retail dealers—Grog-shops—Merchants’ stores and lumber yards—Definition of lumber—Auction sales—Scotch Row and Scotchmen—Incongruous display of goods—Fire in 1797—Ruins—Fire in 1841—Its devastations.
St. John’s, the capital of Antigua, is situated on the west side of the island, and contains about 979 houses. It is built upon a slight declivity, and commands a beautiful view of the harbour, which is one of the prettiest in the West Indies.
The town, which is well arranged, covers a space of about 150 acres of land; most of the streets are wide and well-kept, and intersect each other at right angles—the principal ones running in a straight line down to the sea. There is one peculiarity attending the construction of these streets, which is, that there are no causeways; and consequently, the pedestrian traveller has to elbow his way amid trucks and handbarrows, gigs, carriages, and horsemen, droves of cattle, or cargoes of mules, just landed from other countries, cattle-carts, or moving houses.
At the corners of the different streets are seated hucksters, (black or coloured women;)[[68]] some with their shallow trays, containing cakes of all descriptions, parched ground nuts, (the arachis hypogœa,) sugar-cakes, and other confections, and varieties of fruits and vegetables; others have piles of cottons, coloured calicoes, bright-tinted handkerchiefs, &c., placed by them, or carefully spread along the sides of the most frequented streets, to attract the eye of the passer-by. As most of the Antiguan houses are raised a few feet from the ground, which necessarily requires the use of a step or two, the hucksters are very fond of monopolizing such appurtenances; and it is no uncommon thing to be obliged to wait until they remove their different wares, before you can enter the house, or else take the chance of breaking your neck over heaps of potatoes, or come in closer contact than is advisable with bottles of ginger-drink, or pots and pans of gorgeous colours, from the well-known English potteries.
The houses are generally built of wood, painted of a white or light stone colour, with bright green jalousies, or glass windows and green Venetian blinds. The greater number have covered galleries running along the sides or fronts of them, in which the good people love to assemble in the cool of evening, and while away the hours in converse sweet, or scan over the island newspapers—two of which issue weekly from respective presses, to enlighten the worthy inhabitants as to what is passing in their little colony.
Some of these dwellings are very commodious, and make a good appearance, particularly when shaded by a few beautiful trees, or standing, as many of them do, in a small garden, embellished with Flora’s splendid children. But as for following any of the five orders in their architectural adornments, that is quite out of the question; or at least, it is an order of their own invention they prefer, and which may be called the Antiguan.